Do you think animals understand human language?

[DrBubby]

This is something I've always been really curious about, as scientists don't seem to know for sure. I can say for sure that animals are A LOT smarter than people give them credit for... but that still begs the question: can they actually understand spoken language?

I personally like to think some of them, at least, can. I've had a veritable menagerie my entire life and I spent a lot of my youth observing and interacting with wildlife, so I have a pretty good understanding of animal behavior in general. I don't know whether wild animals have any understanding of human language, but domestic animals sure seem to. In all my time spent with cats, dogs, cattle and horses, I've noticed they seem to respond directly to certain things you say. My cats, in particular, seem to have a keen understanding of what I say to them, as they tend to respond in an appropriate context [like me telling one cat to go out to the living room while I do something, and she'll actually do it, even if she'd rather be with me xD].

I suppose a lot of it could just be that animals can interpret human body language. But I have noticed that animals will attempt to communicate in other ways, as well. One instance that comes to mind was a fish I came across in a pet store once - this really big thing, I forget what it was exactly, that kept following me around the tank, constantly trying to make eye contact. I have no idea what it wanted, but it creeped me right the heck out O_o.
Another example would be a snapping turtle hatchling I found out back of my school once [my school was next to the Delaware river lol] - I brought him home with me to set him loose in the lake I live next to, and he seemed to get rather attached to me. When he realized I wasn't trying to eat him lol, he would happily sit in my palm and just look into my eyes for long periods, like he was trying to tell me something [I should note that I've never seen a turtle make eye contact with a person, so this was pretty interesting lol]. When I finally went to release him, he looked back at me like he didn't want to leave. I really wish I could have kept him ;-;

My last notable example is birds - which I have a special bond with. Birds just seem to like me for whatever reason, and they'll come right up to me at times, especially Hummingbirds. I've found, though, that if I hear a bird singing close by and I whistle it's song in reply, it will actually sing back to me and come over to see what I'm up to. I'm pretty certain they can tell I'm not a bird, as my whistling doesn't sound remotely like a bird, but they respond anyway. I have no idea if this is normal bird behavior or not - I haven't heard of any doing it before.

So, what are your guys' thoughts? Any examples of your own? :3

[Saracirce]

I think animals can understand key words and our tone, but not our entire language. Like, we can understand and interpret what our dogs' bark means, even if we're not in the same room and don't know what exactly they're up to. For instance, I can tell the difference between Clemmy's 'someone's coming to the house' bark from her 'I don't know what I'm barking at' bark from her 'playing with daddy' bark/growl, all of which found fairly similar. What don't know exactly what they're saying but we understand what it means.

I also think it's primarily conditioning and observation that causes them (and us) to understand, rather then that inherently knowing. Like, you can tell a dog who's never been trained to jump all day long but, if you're not luring him, they're just going to be really confused as to what you want. Or a dog sees how others react to you so react the same.

Also, people don't really realize it, but when you talk you do use body language, even unconsciously. Say, you're using an angry tone. Even if you're not really angry, you tend to tense up your body, hunch your shoulders, ball your hands into fists and scrunch up your face, which makes you look really intimidating. Or, if you use a happy tone, even if you aren't happy, your body's loose and relaxed and you might smile while talking.

EDIT: Btw, my turtle makes eye contact with me all the time. It's really not that uncommon for any animal to make eye contact, no matter what species or whether wild or not. There are some where eye contact is considered a challenge and so may avoid making eye contact but turtles aren't one of those.

Excuse typos/horrible grammar. I can't type today xp

[dragonsapphic]

Non-human animals can respond to our emotions, tone of voice, and certain commands, but they cannot understand our verbal language as a whole. One of the largest things that separates humans and non-human animals is the fact that we have a gene which allows for understanding of symbols and structured verbal communication; other animals do not. If I recall correctly, the gene is called "FOXP2."

[Onew~]

My last notable example is birds - which I have a special bond with. Birds just seem to like me for whatever reason, and they'll come right up to me at times, especially Hummingbirds. I've found, though, that if I hear a bird singing close by and I whistle it's song in reply, it will actually sing back to me and come over to see what I'm up to. I'm pretty certain they can tell I'm not a bird, as my whistling doesn't sound remotely like a bird, but they respond anyway. I have no idea if this is normal bird behavior or not - I haven't heard of any doing it before.

A lot of birds will respond to you and may even fly over if you're good enough at calling. They are social, curious animals. Owls are so social that they will even hoot back to a very poorly done owl hoot done by a human. I've gotten one to come trees closer to me.

Body language is also key -- a lot of animals use much more body language than vocalization. So if you shout at your dog "Stop digging in the garden!" even though that's a long command and something he's never been taught, your dog hasn't learned what your words meant, he takes your angered posture and vocal tone and runs off(not saying most or all dogs will do this if you tell them this, haha!).

But I'm not saying animals cannot learn a few words you say often to them. They may learn their name, a rewarding-call, and several vocal commands if you teach them.

[The Cat]

Animals are very smart indeed. I'm glad you have a bond with them. I try to get close to certain animals when given chance. I don't believe though they speak our language, though they can sense our emotions. My aunt told me dogs know when you're coming back home :3